Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-11-25
phemers, and whether there shall be those

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bearing your image and carving your
name fostering in the low haunis of vice,
ana Wondering in dissipation, and making
me midnight of their lives horrid with a
long howl of ruin, or whether from your
family affairs shall come the Christians, the
retormers. the teachers, the ministers of
Christ, the comforters of the troubled, the
heaters of the sick, the enactors of good
laws, the founders of charitable institu-
.lons' and great many who shall in the
number spheres of toll and usefulness
serve God and the best interests of the hu-
man race.
4ou cannot as parents shrink the re.
sponslbility. God has charged you with
mission, and all the thrones of Heaven
arc waiting to see whether you will do
your duty. We must not forget that IL
is not SO much that we teach our chill
dren as what we are in their presence.
\ We wish them to be better than we are,
but the probability is that they will only
De reproductions of our own character.
German literature has much to say of
the "specter Of Broken" Among those
mountains travellers in certain conditions
of the atmosphere see themselves copied
on gigantic scale in the clouds. At first
the travellers do not realize that it is them.
selves on larger scale. When they lift q
hand or move the head this monster
sspecter does the same, and with such en-
largement of proportions that the scene is
most exciting, and thousands have gone to
that place just to behold the specter of
Broken. The probability is that some of
our faults which we consider small and in
significant, if we do not put an end to
them, will be copied on larger scale in
the(lives Of our children, and perhaps di-
latel and exaggerated into spectral pro-
portions. You need not go as far off as
the Broken to see the process. The first
thing in importance in the education of
our children is to make ourselves, by the
grace of God, fit examples to be copied.
The day will come when you must con-
from that child, not in the church pew on
calm Sabbath, but amid the consterna-
tioa of the rising dead, and the flying
heavens, and burning world. From
ysur side that son or daughter, bone of
your bone, heart of your heart, the fathers
brow his brow, the mothers eye his eye,
shall go forth to an eternal destiny. What
will be your joy if at last you hear their
feet in the same golden highway and hear
their voices in the same rapturous song,
illustrations, while the eternal ages last, Of
what a faithful parent could, under God,
accomplish. 1 was reading of mother
who, dying, had all her children
about her, and took each one of them by
the hand and asked them to meet her in
Heaven, and with tears and sobs, such as
those only know who have stood by the
death bed of good old mother, they all
promised. But there was young man of
-, who had been very wild and reckless,
and hard, and proud, and when she took
his hand, she said: Nov, my boy, 1 want
you to promise me before die that you
will become q Christian and meet me in
Heaven" The young man made no
answer, for there was SO much for him to
give up if he made and kept such prom
Use. But the aged mother persisted in say
ing gvo,, ,,o,,,. a.,,. 49, 49,. ,....
will you? This parting must not be for
meet me in the land where there is no
parting" Quaking with emotion he stood,
making up his mind, and hating and hesi-
tating, but at last his stubbornness yielded,
and he threw his arms around his mothers
neck and said; eyes, mother; will, 1
will" And as he finished the last word of
his promise her spirit assembled. I thank
God the young man has kept his promise.
Yes, he kept it. May God give all moth
crs and fathers the gladness of their chill
dren's salvation.
as parents, I quote the tremendous pas
sage: "Train up child in the way in
which he should go, and when he is old
he will not depart from it." If through
good discipline and prayer and godly ex-
ample you are acting upon that child.
you have the right to expect him to grow
up Ivirtuous. And how many tears of
Joy you will shed when you see your child
honorable and just and truthful and
Christian and successful-a holy man
amid world of dishonesty, godly woman
:. e..
you come to die they will gather to bless
your last hours. They will push back the
white locks on your cold forehead and say:
"What good father he always was to
mel" They will fold your hands peace
fully and say: "Dear mother! She is
gone. Her troubles are oil over. Don't
she look beautiful"